September 2, 2008

Dear Parent(s),

         Welcome to the new school year. Some of you I know already and it is a privilege to work with you again. To those I have yet to meet, I am looking forward to getting to know you and to working with you to make this the best possible year for your child. I am writing this note to begin to let you know about some of the ongoing routines in Room 17 this year.

Student Planners and Website

         Each day your child will bring home his/her Student Planner. This book is designed to be used as a tool to help your child take responsibility for his/her own learning and to help keep you up to date on class activities. A great deal of important information is recorded in this notebook so please make a point of asking for it every day and making sure it makes its way back to school each morning. For the first month, I ask that you initial the agenda each day and I will do the same. After September, a blank line after a planner entry will indicate the need for a parent signature or initials. Just in case, I also record all important information on our web page http://fc.gedsb.net/~nkitchen as well as other ideas for productive homework time. It is usually posted by 4:00 p.m. unless meetings or absences prevent it.

Read Across Canada

         In addition to other reading activities, Read Across Canada will be an ongoing project throughout the year. This programme is designed to promote reading both in and out of the classroom. Your child is asked to record the number of pages he/she reads each day. Each page read will be equal to one kilometre and will take the students along the Trans Canada Highway from Victoria, B.C. to Newfoundland. We will be recording our progress on a map we have displayed in the classroom. Each time a student enters a new province he/she will receive a small prize.

         Today the students were given duotangs to record their reading. They were also given a home reading record to keep track of their reading at home. It is a LONG way across Canada (7,306 km) so I encourage the students to keep track of their home reading as accurately as possible.

Homework

         It is recommended that student in grades 4 and 5 should spend 30 - 60 minutes per night on homework. Unless your child works slowly in the classroom or does not use his/her class time productively, it is unlikely he/she will come home with that much assigned homework every night. Most activities and projects this year will be completed during school time as I am better able to assess and help your child progress if I am able to observe the process of their work as well as the product. I also understand that our lives are very busy and believe that our children need time to just ‘be kids’.

          Having said this, it is important that your child begin developing good homework habits and there are many important skills that can and should be practiced at home to help your child succeed. The following skills are extremely important to success in the Junior Grades and, although I will periodically send home short assignments, regular practice and review of skills at home will make up the bulk of the homework requirements this year. I ask that you work with your child to find a routine that works for you and takes into consideration your unique schedules and your child’s level of success with the following skills:

         1) 20 minutes per day of reading is a REQUIREMENT!! Be sure to record the titles and the number of pages on the Read Across Canada form and send it back to school at the end of each month.

         2) Students in the Junior Grades should know their addition and subtraction facts VERY well. Over the next several weeks I will be sending home some games, ideas and strategies for reviewing these skills. Grade 5 students will receive games to help them develop their mental math skills with numbers to 100. A few minutes a day, most days of the week should be spent practicing these facts and skills until your child knows them all confidently.

         3) By the end of Grade 4/5 it is our goal that the students know their multiplication and division facts just as confidently as their addition/subtraction facts. We will be learning different strategies in class and I will send these home along with some games and drills for practice beginning in a few weeks. Practice should continue throughout the year until your child is quick and confident with these facts.

         4) Starting in a few weeks, students will begin an individualized spelling program and will need to spend some time ensuring that they learn the words they have selected for the week. I will send more detail when we begin.

I look forward to a great year!! 

         If you have any other questions or comments, please feel free to write me a note or contact me at the school at 583-0830 or by e-mail at natalie.kitchen@granderie.ca.

Yours sincerely,

Natalie Kitchen